Storming the Web's College-Basketball Corner

It's seemingly harder than ever to point to college sports as an expression of athletic purity. Top programs make little pretense of educating their players; highly touted freshmen arrive on campus with all the hype of an established star; and universities rake in millions of dollars from fat television contracts.

And yet…there's nothing quite like watching a backup player for a mid-major kill himself on every possession, even though he isn't getting paid to play and probably never will. There's nothing like the feeling of exhilaration when a No. 14 seed creeps closer and closer to toppling an elite team in mid-March. And there's nothing like the rivalries, the mascots, and the fans (although Dick Vitale remains as insufferable as ever, of course).